The Hand That Feeds You

September 24, 2012 Leave a comment

Photo added, H/T LegalInsurrection

“You didn’t build that.” We’ve all heard those dismissive words in the news recently.

 Luckily, for all I involved, when I heard those words I didn’t jump up run out and burn an effigy of BHO or stampede my local DMV.  I guess that’s because I didn’t inherit the Islamist strain of thin-skinned believer DNA that makes one go berserk at the mere thought of someone trivializing what they hold to be true.  I did yell at the TV, though: “You’re full of yourself BHO.”

 I am an ardent believer in the constrained view (see below), the view that incentives, individual hard work and prudent trade-offs builds houses on stone foundations.   The unconstrained view of good intentions, big government and “divined” solutions builds houses on sand.  And we all know what happens to each house when torrential rain comes.   And, we all know what Liz Warren’s government built road to hell is paved with.

 There is a reason why BHO diminishes the individual effort.  BHO, of the central planning view, wants joy-stick control of the “invisible hand.”  And I am not talking about “Thing” from the Addams Family comic or the other-worldly operator of the Ouija board.

 The “invisible hand” of the market is a metaphor used by the father of modern economics and capitalism Adam Smith.    Simply put, the metaphor describes the self-regulating behavior of the market place.  Individuals seek to maximize their own gain in a free market society where goods and services are traded in a free exchange between both parties.  For Smith the” invisible hand” guides individuals into mutually beneficial exchanges.  Moral and socially beneficial behavior is evoked through the process. Fairness is part and parcel of market practices.  Obeying the rules (i.e., standard weights and measures) is the order of the day in the market place.  Contract laws were developed to help enforce agreements. If an agreement was broken a resolution in a court of law would be required. This is just and fair to everyone involved, because everyone is involved in protecting their own interests. Free market capitalism offers “The possibility of cooperation without coercion” as Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics once said. Regarding one-on-one resolution Jesus did say, “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

 Adam Smith theorized that the self-interest of individuals acting independently will lead to a socially optimal outcome.  From Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2:

“As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other eases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. [emphasis added].”

Free market exchange encourages a man to, let’s say, go fishing.  The man may eat the fish he caught or he may trade for something that will benefit himself.  The fisherman is not coerced into doing either.  He is free to do as he pleases with his fish. And another is free to trade with the fisherman – say, bread for fresh fish and both parties therefore benefit from the trade-off.    The second party is also free to simply say “No, I don’t want your fish. I want to make tacos al pastor today.”

 Again Adam Smith,

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”

 On the other very visible hand, the well-intentioned-solutions hand, the government confiscatory and coercive hand taxpayer money is simply thrown at problems.  Data abounds showing that well-intentioned-solutions (i.e., food stamp programs, Obamacare, minimum wages laws, etc.) never ever ever fix problems they were intended to solve. The “solution” is never a mutually beneficial exchange.  Rather the solution is a one-way, one-time meal ticket that will always end up requiring more taxation, more regulation and less of your liberty.  The only fishing taking place is in the mail box for the food stamps. BTW: The hand that provides the food stamps is an iron fist – “Do as I say or you will end up hungry,” “Buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty.”

Now, Adam Smith, and later Noam Chomsky invoking Adam Smith, warned of an unrestrained free market society where the “vile maxim of the masters can be pursued without undue interference.”  In other words they thought government regulation (Smith much less, Chomsky much more) would hold the free market in check.  One example:  the fisher folk would not be allowed to restrict the wee folk from fishing, thereby preventing a monopoly on the fish market.

From what I can tell, both BHO and Chomsky see big corporations and Capitalism in general as behemoth American Devils who suck the air out of the world leaving societal corpses in their path. In each their own measure they see the free market, left on its own, turning into unconstrained selfishness. Yet, they see themselves as altruistic.  And as a result of such myopic views of the free market and of themselves they are eager to throttle the life out of the free market with very visible “hands”, the hands of government regulation, taxation and confiscation – the hands of coercion.  They truly believe that an unrestrained socialist statist (central planning) government under the guise of a (small “d”) democracy would be superior to an unrestrained free market within a big “D” democracy.  But government, if you haven’t already noticed, is a monopoly.  It is an all-powerful, ready-to-inflict pain monopoly. Who is holding the tyranny of government back?  Not good intentions.  Not nebulous open-ended “social justice” solutions. Not the voters.  Take a look at congress – there are a lot of visible hands in the pie, grabbing at taxpayer money. They’ve want their clutches on your property because controlling redistribution is a means of staying in power.

 The so-called “unrestrained super-national corporations” are in reality restricted to what the markets will accept.  Countries all around this world invite corporations into their realms because they see the benefits. These corporations are not coercive like government is. And don’t think for a moment that your vote will restrain government.  Those in power like to stay in power and to wield that power.  They pass laws to keep themselves in power as State CEOs.  Good intentions and redistribution solutions are simply “goodies” thrown out during the campaign parade. The public is left with the big mess after the parade.

 My answer:  Laissez-faire – a “hands-off” economic environment made possible by a majority vote for smaller government (big D, small g), less regulation and fewer hands in the pie.  Vote for the person and party that will let you keep your money and control your life.  You know what I am saying– restore LIBERTY. The end result will help generate the dynamic green energy needed for human flourishing.  Human flourishing will then enable people to not have to think so hard about scrapping together an existence or worry about whether the hands of government will snatch away your property.  Human flourishing will also allow more time for the sublime.

So, put your hand in the hand, the “invisible hand,” and let conscience be your guide, not the government.

 “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (A free will-free market exchange moved by the Invisible Hand of love.)

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”  Proverbs 10:4 (A statement of fact from the wisest man who ever lived – Solomon.)

Sally Paradise:  “I built it with my own two hands.” Invisible hand:  “And I helped.”

Definitions:

 Laissez-faire (i/ˌlɛseɪˈfɛər–/, French: [lɛsefɛʁ] (listen)) is an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from tariffs, government subsidies, and enforced monopolies, with only enough government regulations sufficient to protect property rights against theft and aggression. The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means “let [them] do”, but it broadly implies “let it be,” “let them do as they will,” or “leave it alone.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire

 Constrained view:  The constrained vision sees man as he really is:  self-motivated. This realistic vision sees man as selfish and greedy but also willing to respect tradition and rules and certainly able to make prudent trade-offs based on knowledge gained from centuries of accumulated knowledge and wisdom, knowledge and wisdom not confined to an omnipotent Decider. One with a constrained vision doesn’t have all the answers. He or she must operate with humility, tolerance and cooperation in order to support the freedom and liberty within which they seek to live.

Unconstrained view:  The unconstrained vision relies heavily on surrogate decision makers, men or women of “superior” intelligence and virtue, to make our decisions for us.  The implication of this vision is that the common man does not know what is good for himself and for those around him.  But those with super-rational intelligence and sincerity do.  And because of our lack of “fair and just” decision making, we the people need an over-arching Decider – someone to rein in society.  (Recall Obama’s statement:  “You didn’t build that.”  He’s trying to rein in economic activity and attribute a man’s own blood, sweat and tears to government largesse!)

See my post What’s Left?  To Be Decided for more information on the Constrained and Unconstrained Views, terms derived from Thomas Sowell’s book Conflict of Visions.

Statism/centralized government: Course Correction Needed 2012

Things to ponder:

Michael Boskin: Obama and ‘The Wealth of Nations’

Thomas Sowell:  The Fallacy of Redistribution

Obama “Goodies:”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio&feature=player_embedded

“You didn’t build that.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSqYFN9GrUA&feature=player_embedded

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The Taxonomy of The No-Class Warrior’s Obamanomics

August 23, 2012 Leave a comment

Hyperboleconomics: the promotion of the Keynesian fallacy that increasing the national debt by spending trillions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to create a handful of “not-so shovel ready jobs” is money well spent. Keynesian economics can easily be described as the economic stimulus theory whereby your wife tries to spend her way out of her depression.  Sound familiar?  It’s deny side economics.

Cronyeconomics:  The channeling of billions of dollars to fund green projects and then rerouting the money to the pockets of those who know how to spend your money.  Bailouts for supporters of the Obama regime: big unions, big auto manufacturers, big banks, etc..  No bailouts for the little guys – the small businessmen and women struggling to make payroll.

Feareconomics:  “Republicans will push granny over the cliff.  We must live for today.  We promise that there will be no death panel for Medicare.  (That’s reserved only for Obamacare patients.)  Medicare will die soon of natural causes anyway.  Besides, your grandkids are young.  They can fend for themselves.”

Hopeychangeyeconomics:  year one – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year two – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year three – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year four – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes

Fairshareconomics: the proposition that even though half the nation pays taxes and the other half who does not pay taxes benefits from the revenue is considered not fair enough.  The proposition that those who pay taxes pay 100% more in taxes than those who do not is considered not fair enough.  The proposition that even though there is a progressive tax structure in place which rises in percentage as you earn more, this is not fair enough.  “Fair share” economics ultimately is where you pay until there is no more to pay and then its still not fair because you don’t have even more to pay.   Adam Corolla on taxes and fairness (caution:  language).

BlameBusheconomics:  “It’s not my fault.”  “We were handed a raw deal – the Presidency and the Senate.  We will need more time and all your money to throw at this.  Just look how much has been accomplished since we came into office.  We need four more years to pass no budget, spend your money and demand higher taxes.”

Nocarbonfuelseconomics:  wind turbines and solar are the best energy sources to transmit renewable campaign money through companies like GE, Solyndra and others. Besides, with EPA regulations we will make it impossible to generate fossil fuels in this country because we want the world to like us.  Government regulations are key to snuffing out any enterprise which uses natural resources.  “The loss of jobs and homes along the way is collateral damage in our socially conscious war against big oil, big coal and big gas. Remember we hate Imperialistic America abroad but it is OK, though, to be thoroughly imperialistic about green energy here at home.  Our righteous ends demand it. Buy the light bulb we tell you to buy or else.”

Chomskyesquesconomics:  The Industrial-military complex is evil.  America is Satan.  America is a terrorist.  Capitalism is colonialism.  Helping poor nations flourish increases Americanism around the world.  America is to blame for the problems in the world. America should be like Mahatmas Noam, the swami of “universal grammer” and peaceful denial.

“Youdidntbuilthat”economics: :  the presumptuous economic theory that says that because the government has taxing authority over you this same government can take credit for your hard work.  This economic theory assumes that roads and bridges were all it took to create Apple – no human initiative whatsoever is necessary either to create tax revenue or to create products for consumption.  The machinery of government “allowed” Apple to create the iPods, iPads, the Mac Book Pros.  In other words, government is the kid next to you in class, the kid who didn’t study for his finals and who now looks over your shoulder for the answers that will eventually propel him on to greater opportunities to take credit for other’s hard work.

Nannystateconomics:  government is to be your provider, your parent, your priest and your panacea. You should be thankful to be another brick in the wall. “Trust me.”

Obamacare:  receiving political “clap” from Big Brother.  “The time has changed for come.” (at 2:58)

    Antidotes:  Romney-Ryan Tea –  great taste, less filing

Click here for the The Broke Party

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Sojourners or So Jesus?

August 3, 2012 Leave a comment

Are you as a Christian morally perplexed by the economic based social justice issues of the day?  If so then I highly recommend the following book!  And, if you read Sojourners Web Magazine – the Social Gospel’s Mother Earth Magazine – then I really, really, really recommend the following book to you.  This book will help dispel the notion promoted by Sojourner’s Jim Wallis that government can be a proxy Good Samaritan. It will help counter the Marxist nonsense you will read on the Sojourner’s web page.

Here is a blurb about the book:

 Defending the Free Market:  The Moral Case for a Free Economy by The Rev. Robert Scirico, President of the Acton Institute.

 Introduction:  The End of Freedom

 Here are the chapter titles:

A Leftist Undone

Why You Can’t Have Freedom without a Free Economy

Want to Help the Poor?  Start a business

Why the “Creative Destruction” of Capitalism is More Creative than Destructive

Why Greed is Not Good – and Why You Can Get More of It with Socialism than with Capitalism

The Idol of Equality

Why Smart Charity Works – and Welfare Doesn’t

The Health of Nations:  Why State Sponsored Health Care is Not Compassionate

Caring for the Environment Doesn’t Have to mean Big Government

 

Sojourners, Jim Wallis:  “Republican budget is an immoral document.”  What a load of partisan crock!  Wallis plies you with this pietistic propaganda so as to pluck at your heart-strings!  He’s implying that government has the moral responsibility to determine who gets what in our society. Why on earth would anyone put government in this position?  Oh yes, the Evil One would.  Jesus never called the government to come and follow Him.  Jesus never told government to do anything for the poor.  Never.  Judas wanted that but Jesus, never. Sadly, though, people, completely ignoring history, subscribe to Sojourner’s brand of Gnosticism – mixing gospel with government. They do so not just at their own peril but also at the peril of the poor.

The U.S. Senate controlled by Harry Reid and the Democrats has not passed a budget in over 800 days.  This is morally reprehensible.  With no budget there is no accountability to the American people with regard to how taxpayer money is being spent.  I don’t have to tell you that when there is no accountability for how our money is being spent then there is a lot of sleight of hand going on.

 From a recent Weekly Standard Web Article titled “Just Reminder — It’s Been 800 Days Since the Senate Passed a Budget”

The House Budget Committee on Thursday released a report “demonstrating that economic hardships have been made worse by Washington’s misguided interventions and the lack of a credible plan to lift the crushing debt burden.”

The report, “Debt Overhang and the U.S. Jobs Malaise” comes at a timely moment: it has now been 800 days since the Senate has passed a budget. 

“It’s really incredible” said Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., a member of the House Budget Committee, “Democrats don’t get it. They either have trouble figuring out their priorities or they don’t want to reveal them to the American public.  Instead we just get criticism for our plan, which is the only comprehensive plan out there.”

 Wallis is a radical redistributive leftist hell-bent on radical redistributive social “justice.” Yet for Wallis and his ilk, true justice, justice for all,  is just collateral damage in the war against poverty.  It is to be thrown out the window for the sake of putting the poor on a pedestal.  And with this shameful idolatry (remember the Israelites worshipping a golden calf – a facsimile representation of God?) comes the same old Robin Hood story – it’s perfectly OK to steal from the rich especially if you can villainize them first.  Wallis and Obama know that a sucker (subscriber) is born every day.

 You will be told by socialist quacks like Wallis (Marxist ideologues in sheep’s clothing) that voluntary charity doesn’t go far enough, that government needs to be involved.  

Remember when the disciples brought a young boy to Jesus in response to enormous hunger needs?:   

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

The loaves and fishes freely offered by the young boy went as far as Jesus wanted it to go – to thousands of people!  And so too, the widow’s mite.  Don’t buy Wallis’ loaves and fishes.  They will cost you everything.

 The Democrats have done incredible damage to wealth creation, human initiative and human flourishing with their reckless spending and onerous regulations.  They tax and regulate people out of business while at the same time building more casinos to strip away money thereby creating more poverty and more economic dependence. I live in Chicago. I see first hand the devastating results of the Dem’s social programs.

 Voting for Democrats is like shooting yourself in the foot and also killing the poor person whose neck you are holding down to the ground with the jackboot of your “charity.”

 The Republicans are correct – we need economic freedom for people – all people – to thrive. The Democrats redistribute what isn’t theirs to distribute.  All private property and human rights are at risk under Obama the Terrible and a Democrat regime.

 The Rev. Scirico’s book came out this year.  It encapsulates much of what I have been posting about over many months. I have been writing about social justice issues ever since learning that Christians are now recycling socialism under the guise of social gospel.

Here some of those posts:

Just-Fair-Equal: The Stooges of Progressivism

Joseph and the One Percent

When You Wish Upon Obama

The Lord Hears the Cries of the Poor. All Other Listen Up

Course Correction Needed

Outsourcing – a short story

Here is the web site where you will find the Rev. Scirico and others who can explain economics, charity and human flourishing better than Sojourners ever will:  http://www.acton.org/

 There you will find such topics as:

 The Tortured Logic of the Obamacare Law

 Black Scholars Give Obama an “F”

Final thoughts:

“No matter how much people on the left talk about compassion, they have no compassion for the taxpayers.” Thomas Sowell, economist

“Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail — regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have. Shameless effrontery can be a huge political asset, especially if uninformed voters outnumber those who are informed.” Thomas Sowell, economist

Marxists know that when you redistribute money you redistribute values.  They stole this knowledge from Christ.  So, what values does government redistribute?

If we make government the dispenser of charity will Christ be seen?

Do we give to the poor in the name of Uncle Sam or in the name of Jesus?

Government should not be the middle man between us and our brother.  That would be dehumanizing.  And, enabling dependence on what is not of God is not compassionate.

When the poor receive alms from us the response we long to hear is “that’s So Jesus.”

*****

In Sweden, giving to charity, absurdly, came to be considered a lack of solidarity, since it undermined the need for the welfare state.” – Roland Martinsson

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The Lord of Ism’s Prayer

July 22, 2012 Leave a comment

Our Obama which art in the White House

Wallowed be thy fame.

Thy -ism come,

Thy will be done nationally

As it is in North Korea.

Give us this day our daily ration.

And forgive us our liberty,

As we forgive those who use their liberty to pay their own way.

And lead us not into the debt-free living,

But deliver us from clarity

For thine is the government, the IRS and the media

For as long as we vote.

Ahem.

© Sally Paradise, 2012, All Rights Reserved

 

Here is an interesting statement from Chairman Mao, April 30, 1971: 

“China should learn from the way America developed, by decentralizing and spreading responsibility and wealth among 50 states.  A central government could not do everything.  China must depend upon regional and local initiative.  It would not do [spreading his hands] to leave everything up to him [Mao].

 https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/harris/1973/02/sincelin.htm

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Exactly!

July 19, 2012 Leave a comment

Here is Father Robert A. Sirico making it perfectly clear why capitalism is GOOD.  (There is a surprise at the end of the video, too.)

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When You Wish Upon Obama…

May 13, 2012 Leave a comment

you enter the Disneyland-like fantasy world of smoke and mirrors, the amusement park of progressives.  It is there that …

…you live under Chicago style politics instead of the U.S. Constitution.

…you receive Eric Holder – Black Panther style justice which is no justice.

…your liberty is traded for political hype: “Hope and Change’: “Yes, We Can”.

 …the extreme Left receives all manner of special interest goodies. The resulting financial shortfall will be devastating (see Greece, Spain, Portugal, California).  Our children and grandchildren will receive the enormous debt burden.

…the government becomes a monopoly, a monopoly that cannot and will not be broken down. Because of this the competition of the free market system, a system that works to lower consumer cost and to ensure better quality products and customer service will vanish from the scene. You will have to take what the government gives you or go to a black market.

…under Obamacare you have health coverage (you are fined for not having it) but not health care. You will have bought the lie.

…whatever health care you do receive will be meted out by bureaucrats (czars) who will tell how much, when and what kind of health care you will receive. They will also decide who lives and who dies, who benefits and who goes without.

…you are free when Obama says you are free.

…you will have your “fair share” when you understand that running from and resisting the Tax Man is impossible and you surrender. You then become enslaved and live on Obama’s Progressive plantation.

…the only good energy policy is the energy policy that financially powers the Obama candidacy and his progressive agenda.

…America will become a subset of the European Union. (BHO wants to eventually become the potentate of the world.)

…democracy will become meaningless because you will have ceded your liberty to a small group of people who you will be told have your best interest at heart. Your vote will mean nothing. Czars and bureaucrats will replace your representatives.

…a top down government will break the back of the states and in the process also destroy individual liberty. All of this for the sake of controlling costs, controlling your money and controlling you the citizen.

….Christians will be persecuted. The main stream media (powered by Obama’s political and secular colonialism) will openly attack Christianity as not being inclusive enough, as being too extreme. All this and more while homosexuals will be allowed to teach your children their moral values in the public schools.

…absolute moral truth will be replaced with the increasingly vogue secular religions of fairness, egalitarianism, environmentalism and political correctness. These ersatz religions are based on relativism and humanism. These ersatz religions will become the state religions and be reinforced by those who are in power using the main stream media.

…your voice will be silenced (i.e., the fairness doctrine) by the Obama regime if you disagree with his message. And, if you believe that the fairness doctrine will only neutralize conservatives, you are in complete denial. Totalitarians always direct the conversation. Controlling the message, the ideology and indoctrination are central to controlling the citizen on the plantation. See North Korea. See China. See Stalin’s Russia. See…

…your voice will be silenced in deference to a few well-connected intellectual elites who will be exalted within their “ivory tower” college professorships. Your “worker bee voice” will be not be heard.  Instead, your life will become ‘handled’ by these self-promoting social-scientists who receive their power from above.

…America will be divided into those worship the Obamic Vision and those who do not. The race card will be used extensively to promote a divided nation. And, more and more people will claim minority status so as to indemnify themselves against “hate speech”.  Class warfare rhetoric will be used to conflate fairness with an unjust confiscation of property

…your whole purpose in life under Obama will be to become a complacent useful idiot, no more, no less. Through taxation you will be required to buy into the BHO lottery: “Hand me your money and your liberty and we will take care of the rest. Yes, we can.”

…the subsequent rioting in the streets that will occur because of all of the above will be quashed by use of the totalitarian forces put into power by you the voter.

When you wish upon Obama you get the president and the government you deserve.

*****

Course correction needed.

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Just Say “No”

January 27, 2012 Leave a comment

Obama and the Dems want to bring everyone down to the same “bottom-feeder” level called “fair”.  In lieu of a good record to extol, Obama’s campaign plea is take more money from the so-called 1% and then to redistribute the money according to some vague notion of fairness to the 99%.  Obama is not about wealth creation.  Obama is about wealth redistribution.  Obama doesn’t want to make the pie bigger.  Obama wants to slice the pie into smaller slices. Obama and the Dems don’t create wealth, they syphon off wealth by all manner of taxation.  The Dems also build casinos or as I call them, shell games, to gain revenue money from the fools who happily play their life away hoping to “Win the Future”  (a Obama campaign mantra).  And with no money yet in hand Obama, the snake-oil salesman he is, makes financial promises to his base (e.g., college kids, unions, banks, etc.) and does so without regard for the taxpayer who would foot the bill.

After destroying America’s financial future his first term with bailouts to his cronies and the passing of Obamacare, Obama now seeks a second term to continue the pillaging process.  Obama is hell-bent on wiping the American slate clean with a rag he calls “Hope” and then spray painting his own perverse ideological graffiti, “Change”, on the walls of history. For Obama and his posse the U.S. Constitution is just another authority to hold in contempt. This is Obama as Ludicrous, a political class gangsta member from Chicago with the same old denigrating street  rap – “I’m for me and my crew. The rest can go to f___ themselves.

Think about this.  Do you really want someone defining fairness?  Do you really want someone to pick and chose who wins and who loses?  Do you really think that government will stop private property encroachment (taxes) with the 1%? Once you give government the rights to your pocketbook (healthcare included) you lose complete control of it regardless of your democratic representation.

 Now for social gospel junkies, this type of ideology is nowhere near Christianity – robbing Peter to pay Paul.  For the voter, this socialist ideology is nothing other than giving him a false hope of security wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper. It certainly smells like day-old fish.

 True conservatives like myself want everyone to have an opportunity to succeed, to rise up to a new level called “personal success.”  Think about this:  if your money is being taxed away to feed a socialist’s irrational vision than you have less money to provide for your family, less money to build a successful business, less money for charity. Government becomes the focus of your life – not God, family, friends or the needy.

 A vote for Obama will bring you and your family down to a new low and will suck the life out of our nation.  His re-election would move our country from constitutionalism to despotism. If you vote for that you deserve it.

This next presidential election we must not put our votes out to the “hope and change” pasture. We must think and choose wisely.  Just say “No” to the stupor inducing drug called socialism and its street-corner salesman Obama.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

illionoiswithnewt_TheNewtGingrichRecord

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Course Correction Needed: 2012

December 26, 2011 4 Comments

Currently, we as a nation have as our leader the only un-American President ever to hold the office.  He is un-American not because he is black or because there have been questions about his place of birth.  He is un-American precisely because he wants to transform America into a completely different country ~ effectively, an EU style nation under centralized control. And as such the liberty of the individual will convert to the power of the state and its elite contingent.

Here is what a member of Britain’s Parliament said in a recent book warning Americans about the Europeanization of America:

The alarming thing is that President Obama, the former chair of the Senates’s Europe Committee, seems genuinely to believe that the United States can usefully learn from the European political and social model.  The platform on which he was elected, and the policies he is now implementing, are not a series of initiatives lashed randomly together.  They amount to a sustained project of Europeanization:  state health care, government day care, universal college education, carbon taxes, support for supra-nationalism, bigger government, a softer national policy.

 Of course European leaders are flattered by the mimicry.  But, in their hearts, even they know that pursuing such an agenda leaves a country less prosperous and less free.[1]

In order to accomplish this change Obama regularly uses blatant demagogic rhetoric of the class warfare type to stir up fears.  And, with a sliding scale of European-like moral relativism coupled with the Left’s anthropocentric humanism, he ultimately promotes the worship of man and his material needs – One nation under man and his “fair share” of material goods.

With all the arrogance he can muster and an uncontrained vision of top-down government Obama truly seeks to unsettle Americans from their long-standing moral and religious heritage and move them into the framework of a secular democracy based on nothing more than rational humanism and anthropocentrism. He plays to the fear of inequitable outcomes (materialism) and encourages envy cleverly disguised as egalitarianism.  But consider these telling words from economist Thomas Sowell:

 “Those who want to take our money and gain power over us have discovered the magic formula:  get us envious or angry at others and we will surrender, in installments, not only our money but our freedom.  The most successful dictators of the 20th century ~ Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao – all used this formula, and now class warfare politicians are doing the same.”

  “Envy plus rhetoric equals “social justice.”

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. (emphasis mine)

 Nor is economic failure the worst of it.  The millions slaughtered by Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot for political reasons are an even grimmer reality.

Obama daily brines us with acerbic fairness talk hoping to stir up a maelstrom of unrest and radicalism, hoping to push the U.S. into a European model of government where the rule of “Fairness” and “Rights” replaces Truth and Love.  In this madness Obama is helped by the influence of the European George Soros, his money being channeled into progressive media outlets.

Obama dislikes the U.S. because he envies Europe.  He does not want to exalt America’s exceptionlism and its unmatched charity.  Rather, he wants to extol Europe’s elitism and its useless intellectual humanitariansim.  He believes Europe to be superior to America in many ways including societal issues and in the nature of its governance.  He certainly believes Europe to be on the height of societal evolution when in fact Europe is cutting off its own moral foundations at the root.

As a student of radical SDS terrorist Bill Ayers Obama also bows to the 60’s radical’s vision of democratic revolution, but he does so now in a new button-downed guise of “Hope and Change.”  (BTW:  the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution. The phrase was coined by Bill Ayers in 1975.)

Since the 1960s when the radicalization of democracy began it has continued to undermine all authoritative institutions and even Truth itself. The 60’s radical prostrates himself before pure autonomy and consent, offering nothing of value in exchange. Beyond all this Obama wants to place over America the banner of “One World” ~ “One World Under Man and Materialism

Under such a “One-World” banner Obama would pledge U.S. allegiance to international energy, environmental, economic, judicial and social policies. This banner would replace our own hard won historically, philosophically and religiously birthed constitution with an Eric Holder type of pick and choose demagoguery – a tyranny of the unconstrained vision to which Obama, Holder and Europe fully embrace. It is a banner of an abstracted democracy which encourages people to abandon self-governance and the idea of Truth. Under such a banner “The pressure builds to defer to elite opinion, to the requirements of humanitarianism and egalitarianism, to the moral authority of international law.”[2]

Not just because of the ineptness of his leadership, his lack of statesmanship, his neglect of history, his political cronyism, his scorn of facts or his faux spirituality should Obama be a one term president.  If  Obama were to be elected again America would lose its heart, mind and soul to the nihilism, secularism and parasitism of socialism so characteristic of the European nations today ~ nations floundering under the weight of their own foolishness, lack of self-governance and spiritual neglect.

America needs an American President. We need a president who will guide us, a republic established by spiritual and philosophic men and women of great insight, of great learning and of great depth of character.  The founders were people of self-governance committed to the best possible outcomes available to every man.  What we have now is a one-dimensional populist autobiographer whose main devotions are to himself and to golf.

“Barack Obama also is the deep thinker who ponders great things.  And the thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness.  He doesn’t write biographies, he writes only autobiographies.  He gives speeches which he declares to be historic.  He recognizes his place in history long before he has created history.  This nation is but a stage upon which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it’s all about him.” William A. Jacobson,  A Harvard Trial Lawyer for McCain

America does not need the snarkiness and hubris of light-weight Obama. We certainly do not want or need a president who cut his ideological “teeth” on the teachings of people like 60s radical Bill Ayers and “God Damn America” Jeremiah Wright. We do not need a freshman senator from Illinois to vote “Present” during our times of national crisis.

The pilgrims left Europe in order to embrace freedom of religion ~ a freedom from a centralized religion. In the process they, along with Truth-honoring statesmen helped to form an American Republic derivative of and dependent on Truth.  Obama’s presidency is now piloting our ship away from the shores of vested Truth and back towards Europe. There the vacuum of moral relativism with its detestation of Truth will suck the U.S. down into its sink-hole.

God Save America from Obama.

[1] Daniel Hannan, The New Road to Serfdom: A letter of Warning to America (New York:  Broadside Books, 2010), 76

[2]  Daniel J. Mahoney, The Conservative Foundations of a Liberal Order  (ISI Books, 2010) 21

Filed under 2012 election, essay, Life As I See It, Political Commentary, Politics, short piece, Writing Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Coat Check

October 10, 2011 Leave a comment

Social justice.  The very words conjure up radical emotions towards the inequality of means.  The response by those guided by such vacuous and subjective words is almost always “We have to do something to make things right, to make things fair.” So off they go in the direction of collectivism and socialism seeking fairness.  To them these sociopolitical ideologies offer fairness and a fairness which must be won at any cost. But as the bumper sticker says, “Social Justice is neither.” And, it certainly is not fair.  If it is anything it is manifested envy, pure and simple.

 The story of Fairness and his brothers Envy, Ungrateful and Solipsism is four thousand years old. It is the story of Joseph being given a coat.

 Recapping the Old Testament story from Genesis:  Jacob and Rachel had a son named Joseph. Joseph was the youngest of Jacob’s eleven sons born in the service of Laban. The twelfth son, Benjamin, was born later in Canaan. Joseph’s father Jacob favored Joseph and gave him a special coat as a gift; as a result, he was envied by his brothers, who saw the special coat as an indication that Joseph would assume family leadership. His brothers’ suspicion grew when Joseph told them of his two dreams (Genesis 37:11) in which all the brothers bowed down to him. The envy of the brothers may also have stemmed from the fact that Joseph was the son of Rachel, Jacob’s first love.

The narrative tells that his brothers plotted against Joseph when he was 17, and would have killed him had not the eldest brother Reuben, who, even though had the most to lose if Joseph ascended to a family leadership role, interposed. He persuaded them instead to throw Joseph into a pit and secretly planned to rescue him later. However, while Reuben was absent, the others planned to sell him to a company of Ismaelite merchants. When the passing Midianites arrived, the brothers dragged Joseph up and sold him to the merchants for 20 pieces of silver. The brothers then dipped Joseph’s coat in goat blood and showed it to their father, saying that Joseph had been torn apart by wild beasts…

Popular social psychology suggests that a father figure should give a fair share to his children in order to not hurt the child’s id or ego or self-esteem, what have you. The same thinking would blame the parent for discriminating with his favor. This thinking would continue to say that Jacob was unfair to Joseph’s brothers and that the family was dysfunctional at best. Popular psychology would not hold Joseph’s brothers accountable for their actions.  Popular psychology would blame the father and the dysfunction around the brothers.

 The brother’s, of course, looked at what they didn’t get from their father and became obsessed with Joseph’s position of favor in their father’s eyes. And though each of them knew the largesse of their father for many more years than the youngest sibling Joseph they didn’t regard this of any value.  Instead they collectively chose to obsess about what they viewed as Joseph’s privileged life. Well, you know where that led – to the slavery of Joseph, the loss of fellowship with their brother and the father’s loss of a son – all for the bottom line of greed and envy, the progenitors of social justice and fairness. Their “self-righteous” ends justified their means.  This is moral relativism. 

 The Bible clearly records the brother’s envy and doesn’t paint it over with popular psychology. Sadly, populist social envy or class warfare with its “picking winners and losers” rhetoric (e.g., in terms of wealth, hedge fund manager-bad, Oprah Winfrey-good) has even infiltrated the church with its social gospel sermons.

 What should have happened:  Joseph’s brothers should have rejoiced with their brother over his recent gift.  They should have been happy for him and congratulated him. Instead, they saw what they didn’t have and became ‘coated’ with envy green. This brings me full circle back to the terms “social justice” and “fairness”. Both of these terms are full of themselves and nothing else except to be further defined as “a loss to someone else”.  “Fairness” in the hands of the envious is a deadly business.  And, wolfish human nature doesn’t change under the sheepskin cloak of wishful altruism.

 BTW:  The Hebrew origin of the name Joseph means “God will add” or “May Yahweh add”.

 *****

 Joseph was later able to feed and house his brothers during a seven-year famine.  You will have to read the rest of the story (basically the second half of the book of Genesis) to find out how God used Joseph in spite of the social engineers who sought to rid their lives of unfairness and a brother with it.

Filed under Christianity, Conservatism, conservative, Culture, Economics, essay, Political Commentary, Politics, Progressivism, social commentary Tagged with , , , , ,

Angels & Devils – Saul Alinsky Style: #Occupywallstreet

October 2, 2011 Leave a comment

Did you vote for Obama??!! Do you really want “the political paradise of communism”? Do you want the overthrow of our country by youth who use Google, iPods, iPads, iPhones, Facebook, Blackberries etc. – all corporation created products – to demonstrate against Capitalism and the Free Market? How do you feel about the hypocrisy and absurdity of this situation?

You should know that the recent Wall Street Day of Rage in this Obama moment are pages right out of Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals (1971). Here are excerpts from Rules for Radicals:

In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace…. “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’ This means revolution.” p.3
“A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage — the political paradise of communism.” p.10
“An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth — truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing…. To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations….” pp.10-11

Rules of Radicals book dedication:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history… the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

Alinsky tactic:  “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.” (pps.127-134)

Obama’s connection with Alinsky:

“Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see that my father’s model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday.” –Letter from L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky.

The demonstrating zealots with their electronics products, in keeping with their anti-corporation/anti-Capitalism theme, will have to discard those products created by the subject of their collective anger and begin to “bang on the drum all day” in order to communicate.

To wit, a 10-5-2011 update:

 

 

 

 

BTW:  Student loan forgiveness by the government makes perfect sense to these kids because of Obama’s dealings with Solyndra. Apparently, Obama thinks our country has money to burn. Obama has set a poor example for our youth.

God help us everyone.

Filed under 2011, Current Events 2011, Life As I See It, Political Commentary, Politics, Progressivism, social commentary Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

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